Weapons is the fifth and final studio album by the Welsh alternative rock band Lostprophets, released through Epic on 2 April 2012.[1] It's the first and only record featuring Luke Johnson on drums, after being with two other drummers previously,[8] Mike Chiplin and Ilan Rubin (the latter of whom features in archive recordings included on the "deluxe edition"[9] of Weapons, as well as the hidden track "Weapon" on all versions of the album).

Just like their third studio album it features Latin on the front, which reads deus velox nex. When translated it reads God is swift death. This has been confirmed by guitarist, Mike Lewis.[10]

Contents

The band started writing new material after finishing the The Betrayed Tour. The album is produced by Ken Andrews at Hollywood.[3][4] Several songs were debuted before it official release date. "Bring Em' Down" was played live in the warm up shows for the 2011 V Festival, and was aired as the first single from Weapons on Zane Lowe's Hottest Record on 6 February 2012.[11] "We Bring an Arsenal" made its debut on 25 February 2012.[12] The song "Better Off Dead" received its first radio play by BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe as his "Hottest Record in the World".[13] As of 6 January 2012 it was made available for download from the band's official website.[14]

This is Lostprophets' first studio release through Epic (UK) and Fearless (US) after leaving their long-time served record, Visible Noise.[15][16] Lostprophets also announced an extensive tour of the UK and Ireland, consisting of 14 shows which commence on the 15 April 2012 in Dublin and finishes on the 4 May 2012 in London.[17] It was released in the UK on 2 April 2012 and it was released in the US on 19 June 2012.[18] Because the fourth studio album The Betrayed was not released in North America, it's the band's fourth released album in some regions. The "deluxe edition"[9] of the albums contains three "Garage sessions" tracks, recorded in 2007 as demos for the ultimately-abandoned album sessions with John Feldmann[19] prior to The Betrayed, with the track "Weapon" from the same sessions included as a hidden track on all versions of the album. Further more bonus tracks are found on the Japanese "deluxe edition".[20][21] The US "deluxe edition" is different from the UK edition.[22] Lostprophets headlined the Warped Tour UK in November 2012.[23]

The first single, "Bring 'Em Down", was released on 23 March 2012.[5] "We Bring an Arsenal" was to be the second single, released on 4 June 2012 but the song has still to be officially released as a single.[6] "Jesus Walks" was to be released as the next single on 10 September 2012, but again no official single was released.[7] On 3 December 2012, Watkins tweeted, "En route to the big smoke to shoot our new musical video." When the band had previously debuted "Bring 'Em Down" on Zane Lowe's show in February, Watkins stated that the fourth single was to be a "power ballad". However, sixteen days after the video shoot, it was announced that Watkins had been arrested for a string of sex offences, including possession of indecent images of children and unlawful intercourse with children,.[24] The video shot was for "Somedays" and was filmed at the I-Heart Studio's in London. Lee and Ian were the only members of the band at the video shoot as the rest of the band were going to be included using archive footage.

Critical reaction to the album has been generally mixed. It currently holds a normalised score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating 'mixed or average reviews', making it the lowest rated album released by the band to date.[25] As a result, critics have generally seen the album as a decline in the band's career.[25]

Alternative Press states almost all songs have a big chorus, with the "cheesy" posturing of songs such as "We Bring an Arsenal" and the flat strains of "Somedays". The opener "Bring 'Em Down" hits the spot, and they may well have "arm-wrestled" The All-American Rejects to claim the effervescent chorus of "A Song for Where I'm From".[27]